Wheat Faces Friday Pressure as USDA Raises Stocks

The wheat complex saw pressure on Friday following a bearish USDA report that saw a stocks hike. Chicago SRW contracts were 10 to 12 ½ cents in the red with December slipping 12 cents since last Friday. KC HRW futures were 10 to 17 ¼ cents lower in the front months, as December was 16 cents lower this week. MPLS spring wheat was down 2 ¾ to 10 ¾ cents on Friday with December  2 ¾ cents lower on the week.

USDA’s monthly WASDE update showed US wheat stocks up 23 mbu to 740 mbu this morning, as output was raised by 3 mbu from the September Small Grains Summary. Exports were cut by 25 mbu, as imports were up 5 and feed/residual up 10 mbu. World stocks were trimmed by 0.25 MMT to 276.04 MMT. A 3 MMT increase to Russian stocks (from a cut to exports) was offset by a 1.8 MMT cut to EU stocks, as well as Argentina down 0.5 MMT and China down 1 MMT.

The weekly CFTC report from Friday indicated managed money in CBT wheat futures and options adding 7,873 contracts to their net short position in the week ending on October 6. That took their net short to 29,543 contracts. Specs in KC wheat cut back 6,670 contracts from their net long, taking it to 24,040 contracts.

The French wheat crop is 4% planted as of October 5 according to the FranceAgriMer, behind the 5% pace from last year.

Dec 26 CBOT Wheat  closed at $6.71, down 12 1/4 cents,

Mar 27 CBOT Wheat  closed at $6.85 1/4, down 12 1/2 cents,

Dec 26 KCBT Wheat  closed at $7.19 1/4, down 17 cents,

Mar 27 KCBT Wheat  closed at $7.31 3/4, down 17 1/4 cents,

Dec 26 MIAX Wheat  closed at $6.95 1/4, down 10 3/4 cents,

Mar 27 MIAX Wheat  closed at $7.13 1/4, down 10 1/4 cents,

On the date of publication, Austin Schroeder did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.